A sealing arrangement of this type and a method are disclosed in German Published Unexamined Application DE-OS 15 433. To achieve a rotationally induced return flow effect, provision is made for a shaft having grooves applied at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis. The return flow effect, after a short period of operation, is eliminated at the place where the radial shaft sealing ring exerts the greatest pressure, due to the deformation and the wear associated therewith, so that the sealing ring cannot be subject to any further wear at all. In the immediate vicinity of this now eliminated return flow effect, the existing grooves continue to exhibit a return-flow effect, as before. The document indicates that a return-flow thread would destroy the sealing edge of the radial shaft sealing ring.
The grooves are produced by a simple plunge-cutting (gashing) procedure, as for example, by means of rotating grinding disks or using a polishing disk furnished with abrasive powder. In grinding the surfaces, a disadvantage lies in the unpredictable nature of the outcome, i.e., whether the sealing arrangement will provide an adequate sealing action during normal use. The ground surface has an unpredictable number of spiral-shaped, multi-thread grooves of various depths. The number and form of the threads continuously changes in unpredictable ways during the manufacturing of the surface, depending on the condition of the grinding disk, the vibration response of the drive shaft of the grinding disk, the vibration response of the drive shaft of the grinding disk, and/or of the surface to be ground, and the spacial relationship of the rotating axes with respect to each other. Given the typically randomly developed form of the multi-thread grooves on the surface, the volume of the medium to be sealed within the grooves may be so great that the radial shaft sealing ring is no longer able to convey the medium to be sealed back into the space to be sealed off.